Pakistan should do more to dismantle terror, says India

New Delhi, Feb 24 (IANS) As Islamabad sought more details and audio recordings of conversations between the Mumbai attackers and their handlers, India Tuesday asked Pakistan to do more to dismantle terror infrastructure on its soil if it wanted to resume the peace process. “So far the composite dialogue is concerned, it is false and we expect Pakistan to do more in respect of dismantling the terror infrastructure,” External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee told reporters here when asked about the resumption of the stalled talks between the two countries.

Islamabad has made a fresh pitch for resuming the composite dialogue with New Delhi after it admitted nearly a fortnight ago that a part of the Mumbai conspiracy was hatched and executed by its citizens from Pakistani territory. In media interviews, Pakistani leaders have been asking India to restart the fifth round of composite dialogue, saying only talks can resolve issues related between the two countries.

When Pakistan High Commissioner Shahid Malik met Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon Monday, he again raised the issue of the composite dialogue that went into a limbo after the Mumbai terror attacks in November last year.

New Delhi has made it clear that the resumption of the dialogue process can only happen after credible and verifiable action by Islamabad against the Mumbai terrorists and the larger terror infrastructure that is used to launch attacks into the Indian territory.

Mukherjee Tuesday again reminded Pakistan has to bring the perpetrators of the terror attacks to justice. “The process is on. We have received their response. We are going to send the response to them,” he said.

The chargesheet in the Mumbai attacks is expected to be filed in a couple of days.

India has, however, ruled out a joint probe into the Mumbai carnage, but has agreed to respond to Pakistan’s queries related to the attacks through official channels. India has already made it clear that it is examining 30 questions raised by Pakistan and will provide whatever information is possible.

Pakistan has sought details like the numbers stored in the memory of the phones used by ten terrorists who attacked Mumbai. It has also sought any photographs or audio recordings stored on the cellular phones.

Pakistan has asked for an “authenticated copy” of the confessional statement of Ajmal Kasab, the lone Mumbai attacker in Indian custody, as recorded by judicial authorities and “other documentation/diaries recovered from his possession”.

It has also sought mobile phone numbers “used by Ajmal in the past, if disclosed during interrogation”.